Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. American Psychological Association (2013), "the discipline embraces all aspects of the human experience — from the functions of the brain to the actions of nations, from child development to care for the aged" (para. 1). American Psychological Association (2013), "in every conceivable setting from scientific research centers to mental health care services, "the understanding of behavior" is the enterprise of psychologists" (para. 1).

Pages

Sunday, May 26, 2013

What is the relationship between arousal and behavior? Which sources of arousal do you believe have the greatest effect on arousal level? Explain.

Arousal is the
mobilization or activation of energy, which occurs in preparation or during
actual behavior (Deckers, 2010). Arousal is energy that is produced by the
interaction of internal and external stimuli. Three types of arousal are
physiological, brain, and psychological arousal. Physiological arousal is how
an individual's body changes during arousal. Physiological arousal entails
changes, such as sweaty palms, increased muscle tension, breathing, and heart
rate. Brain arousal is the stages of sleep, awake, and alertness within the
brain (Deckers, 2010). Deckers (2010), "psychological arousal refers to
how subjectively aroused an individual feels" (p. 3). Feelings of
psychological arousal includes anxiety, fearfulness, and tension.

Behavior is the
actions or reactions of an human or nonhuman animal in response to internal or
external stimuli. The relationship between arousal and behavior is that arousal
is the energy that develops in preparation of or during behavior. This
relationship between arousal and behavior can impacts an individual's body in
several ways, such as an individual developing anxiety and tension. The
relationship between arousal and behavior depends on the nature of the task
that is being performed (Deckers, 2010). Therefore, arousal and behavior can
impact an individual's performance based on the task that is performed, and diminished
or enhance performance.

Three sources of
arousal are stimuli, collative variables, and tasks. Stimuli is anything in the
environment that causes behavior to occur, collative variables refers to
collectively to stimulus characteristics that include novelty, complexity, and
incongruity, and tasks are activities that stimulates arousal (Deckers, 2010).
I believe that all three sources of arousal have an effect on arousal level,
and one source can affect an individual's arousal level greater than another
source could affect a different individual's arousal level because this depend
on that particular individual's situation or circumstance. Therefore, stimuli
could have the greatest effect on one individual's arousal level, while tasks
could have the greatest on another individual's arousal level, and yet
collative variables could have the greatest effect on a different individual's
arousal level.